


Manifesto

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: Ranma 1/2
Genre: Character Study, Fifteen Minute Fic, Gen, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-08-26
Updated: 2004-08-26
Packaged: 2018-02-21 23:36:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2486423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ranma swears the kami are out to get him.  Nabiki thinks they have a different target.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Manifesto

**Author's Note:**

> This ficlet was inspired by the 8/15/04 [15minuteficlets](http://15minuteficlets.livejournal.com) word #68.

Ranma swears the kami are out to get him. Sometimes, looking at the chaos our lives have become, I agree with him. Then I look at the consequences of that chaos, and I start to wonder if it's really all an elaborate game instead... or, more unsettling, a series of tests to prepare us for some unimaginable catastrophe.

Which, going by previous experience, will be damn silly in addition to being deadly, but I suppose even the kami can't be serious all the time.

What I can't figure out is where all the fiancées fit into that theory. The opponents they drag with them, yes, those make sense, but how on earth is Ranma supposed to solve that tangled mess of affection and obligation? If he doesn't marry Shampoo, lord knows what'll happen to the bimbo -- she already got a Jusenkyo curse for failing the first time. If he doesn't marry Ukyo, he slights both his honor and hers. If he doesn't marry Akane, he also slights the honor of two families. And none of them -- Akane's protests aside -- will sit quietly by and let any of the others make off with Ranma.

This leads me back to the idea that our lives are a game to amuse the kami. They don't actually care how we resolve any of it; they just enjoy watching us scramble like rats caught in a maze, and they toss new challenges at us now and then to see what happens.

I suppose that could be an interpretation of the kami being out to get Ranma, as he says, but why must they include the rest of us in the game? Oh, it's marvelously fun to watch -- I'd never deny that -- and running betting pools on the chaos is both exciting and profitable -- but even I get tired sometimes. And I'd like to be able to consider my home a safe haven.

But that's impossible so long as Ranma lives here, and by this point, even if he left to stay with one of the other girls, I think we'd still have enough residual madness to keep me from letting down my guard.

If the kami really are out to get us, I don't think they're targeting Ranma. He's perfectly capable of dealing with the insanity. No, the ones they're out to get are the normal people, like me and Kasumi, the ones who might otherwise have normal lives, the ones whose plans founder on the insanity of Nerima.

Well, as soon as I graduate Furinkan, I'm getting out. And family or not, nothing and nobody is going to drag me back into this disaster.


End file.
